Well, considering 1) the polls are solidly moving in favor of the right for gays and lesbians to marry, and 2) the fact that the plank in the Democratic platform is fairly symbolic, and 3) the President already came out in support of marriage equality, you’d think this was a given. Washington Blade:

A Democratic National Committee staffer, who is familiar with the process and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the language in the platform approved on Sunday not only backs marriage equality, but also rejects DOMA and has positive language with regard to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The exact wording of the language wasn’t immediately available.

The platform is still in a draft phase. Writers of the platform are now set to come up with close-to-final draft that will be presented before the full platform committee in Detroit next month. That committee will discuss amendments before presenting the platform at the convention in Charlotte in September.

A number of witnesses were to testify in favor of a marriage equality plank in the platform: Marc Solomon, national campaign director for Freedom to Marry; Army Chief Warrant Officer Charlie Morgan, a lesbian New Hampshire guardsman with stage-four incurable breast cancer and a plaintiff in Servicemembers Legal Defense Network’s lawsuit against the Defense of Marriage Act; Michael Macleod-Ball, the American Civil Liberties Union’s chief of staff for the Washington Legislative Office; and Aaron Zellhoefer, a gay delegate to the Democratic National Convention representing the National Stonewall Democrats.

Let’s hope we get no Mississippi walkouts, as in Hubert Humphrey’s day on civil rights for African-Americans. I actually had assumed the Democratic Party platform already favored marriage equality — do you suppose we can hope the Democrats actually call it “marriage equality” rather than the dreaded “gay marriage?”

Cool, glad to see this! As a North Carolinian, I know my precinct, county, district, and state dem party all passed resolutions supporting marriage equality. The only step left for the party is to officially support it nationally.

I’m looking even more forward to the national convention in Charlotte now. 3 of the 4 delegates from my county are gay.

Thank God I can vote for alternative party candidates who already have LGBT equality in their platforms and are also pro-woman’s rights, pro-racial equality, pro-labor, pro-peace, and pro-environment as apposed to the Democrats who claim to be but in action end up being as awful as the Republicans.

Let’s not forget that there are still anti-equality and anti-choice Democrats (just as there are some pro-equality and pro-choice Republicans).

Let’s not forget that Democrats helped get Alito and Roberts into the Supreme Court.

This doesn’t excuse the fact the Democrats voted for and Clinton signed DADT.

Nor the fact that Democrats overwhelmingly voted for DOMA, also championed and signed by Bill Clinton, a closet bigot. Clinton even gloated about it. He aired an ad on redneck christian radio stations that said, along with other right wing garbage that: “The President signed the Defense of Marriage Act… Clinton has fought for our values and America is better for it. Paid for by Clinton/Gore 96″

Nor does it excuse Obama’s bigoted betrayal of the fight against Prop 8 in 2008 when he appeared on MTV and said ‘I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage…’ In spite of his pro forma opposition to Prop 8 that and his bigoted statement that ‘gawd’s in the mix’ galvanized the catholics, mormons and evangelicals, flipped the polls and doomed us. Prop 8 unexpectedly and unnecessarily passed and it was definitely Obama’s fault.

If, and only if, Democrats pass a robust hate crimes law and civil rights amendment forbidding hate speech and discrimination in employment, housing and public services that exacts crippling fines and long term jail time from the criminals, then they can call themselves pro-GLBT. Until then Democrats remain a mixed bag of panderers and bigots worthy only of the support of people who comfortable with bigots and panderers.They could have done that before but refused to do so. Republicans won’t have such language in their platform because there’s no point in their lying about it. They not better or worse than Democrats, just more honest.

This is from CBS News chief political consultant Marc Ambinder: “One reason the Rick Warren thing is a big deal is because, after Bill Clinton, the gay community is unusually sensitive to getting the shorter angle of presidential triangulation. It is hard to overstate the optimism and excitement that gays and lesbians felt in 1992. But the optimism deflated spectacularly after “Don’t Ask, Don’t tell” and the Defense of Marriage Act, not to mention President Clinton’s sneaky 1996 ad boasting about DOMA, which aired only on Christian radio. Clinton was willing to say the word “gay” in public and appear in black tie at the Human Rights Campaign dinner, but, in the eyes of the gay political community, his commitment to gay rights vanished both times it counted most.” http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-4675355-503544.html

Counting on Democrats like Clinton, Obama and the rest is like being in that cult that dances with rattlers. You know you’re going to get bitten, you just don’t know when or how often.